U.S. Is No. 1, China Is So Yesterday

Spectacular growth is always easy when countries start at zero, as did Taiwan and South Korea. Or as did destroyed economies such as Japan’s and West Germany’s. Essentially, they all followed the same growth model: overinvestment, underconsumption, “exports first” and an artificially cheapened currency. West Germany once hit 8 percent, and the Little Dragons boasted rates as impressive as China’s in its heyday. In this decade, Taiwan is down to an average of 3.75 percent, South Korea to 3, and Japan to 1.